


The One With the Emo Music

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Did I mention that Keith is super gay, Emo Keith (Voltron), First Kiss, Fluff, Gay Character, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Male Character, Getting Together, Keith is also really gay lmao, Keith is really really gay, Keith just wants to listen to his emo music in peace, Lance wants attention, Lance's family is only mentioned but I expand on them a lil, M/M, My Chem, Rambling in the Tags, Stereotypes, Stereotypical Emo Behaviour, The boys challenging each other, The fluffiest fluff I've ever written, Theft, They love each other, as per my gf's headcanons, fluffy fluff, klance, my chemical romance - Freeform, so fluffy it'll make your teeth rot, this takes place after the space mall ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 08:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10612950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: Keith listens to My Chemical Romance and Lance wants to talk about his family.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HelloThereAlisha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloThereAlisha/gifts).



> I wrote this in one day and I didn't beta it. Have some words :)

Keith wasn’t actually sure what possessed him to take it. They were already doing enough damage as it was by not staying on the DL; Pidge and Lance were making sure of that. The owner of the “Earth” shop was completely focused on them and them alone… which had made it easy for Keith to reach over after subtly examining it for a few minutes and slip it underneath his armour, where it had rested snugly between that and his clothes beneath. 

Honestly, it was probably the shittiest little personal CD player Keith had ever seen. And he’d seen a whooole lot of junk, living off his instincts the way that he’d done for most of his life. It was temperamental when it worked and annoying when it didn’t. The silver paint was chipping off in more places than it was actually smooth. And it only had the one CD that had been inside of it when Keith had stolen it off of the shelf. 

For all its flaws, though, it was nice to have something to listen to when he was lying in bed at night. Or whatever constituted as night, since they were on a pretty weird schedule. In space. He never turned the volume up very high, since the main priority was always the ability to hear the alarms if they started up, but having something other than loud, pressing silence was… well, nice. 

He’d actually recognised the CD in the player, to his great surprise, when he’d first popped it open in the store. Out of every single album known to man, he’d actually  _ listened _ to this one. He’d stumbled upon it a few days after he’d finally given up on foster homes for good --before he’d met Shiro-- and had fallen in love with it immediately. Despite knowing that he needed to save his money, he’d purchased the CD back on Earth, along with a tiny little battery-powered player that had gotten wet one too many times and had a habit of shorting out every third song. Even after Shiro had disappeared and Keith had set up his little cabin in the desert, he’d kept the CD. If he was feeling sentimental, he might have even said that it had kept him going. 

And now, here he was, in possession of the very same CD, a million lightyears away, on a giant castle floating through space. 

And Lance was making fun of him for it. 

“Dude, Keith, have you seen my skincare k-- What is  _ that _ ?!” 

Keith scrambled to hide the player under his pillow, but he already had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He’d purposely kept it a secret from the other paladins (and Coran and Allura), mostly because he knew that his fellow paladins would likely want a turn, and because Allura would probably look down her nose at him for stealing. But if Lance had already seen it, he was royally screwed. 

“Nothing,” Keith answered, too quickly. He cringed at himself inwardly. 

“No no nonono, you had something! I saw it.” Lance walked into his room without being invited --Keith shoved down a stab of annoyance-- and crossed it in two easy strides of his long legs. “C’mon, Keith, my buddy, my  _ man _ , show me show me show me!”

Keith felt himself weakening slightly under the pouty, puppy-dog face that Lance was giving him, and knowing that only made him strengthen his resolve. No. He was  _ not _ going to crumble that easily. Just because it was  _ stupid Lance _ pouting at him… No. Absolutely not. 

“Stop being a dick, Lance. Besides, shouldn’t you be sleeping?” 

“Shouldn’t you?” Lance shot back. 

“I don’t sleep,” Keith responded, the truth in the statement disguised by the animosity he shoved into his tone. 

Lance stared at him for a second before rolling his eyes and flopping down onto the bed. 

“Please, make yourself at home,” Keith muttered. He was promptly ignored, and he didn’t resent that at all, no. Not one bit. 

“C’mon,  _ Keiiiith _ ,” Lance whined, drawing out his name in a way that was completely annoying and most definitely not endearing. “ _ Pleeeease?  _ I’ll show you something cool, too,” he cajoled, and Keith absolutely  _ hated _ himself for glancing over at him, because he was still wearing that ridiculous puppy-dog face, but now it was accompanied by Lance in all his pyjamaed glory, lying on  _ his _ bed like he fucking owned it. How could anyone not crack under that sort of pressure?!

They were lucky that the Galra hadn’t figured out how to torture via Lance, because if they had, they would all be screwed. 

“Fine,” Keith huffed. “If I show you, will you go away?” Lance nodded vigorously, and Keith heaved a sigh and slowly removed the pillow to reveal the player and headphones hiding underneath. 

For a moment, Lance just stared down at it, completely silent. And then a huge grin stretched across his features. “Man! How did you get this!?” 

“I said I would show it to you, not that I would talk,” Keith stated firmly, glaring down at the player, as though it was entirely its fault that Lance was currently sprawled across the thin blankets on top of the mattress. He was resolved to not look at Lance until the other paladin had gotten up to leave, because there was absolutely  _ no way _ that he was going to give up any more information about anything than was absolutely necessary. 

Lance made a dismissive sound and reached for the player, the music faintly audible from the headphones that Keith had hastily ripped off. His hand stopped just short of it, though, and it surprised Keith enough to forget about his resolve entirely and glance up. There was a strange look on Lance’s face, one that he didn’t actually recognise. 

“Can I?” Lance asked, and Keith was so damn  _ shocked _ that he couldn’t do anything but slowly nod the affirmative. Lance grinned again, a genuine smile that certainly didn’t leave Keith feeling like the room was too warm, and reached down to pick up the little player. 

“Careful,” Keith cautioned without thinking about what he was saying. “It’ll skip over itself if you move it too fast. It’s… difficult.” Not unlike Lance, he mused to himself, still feeling like he needed to speak to Allura about the temperature she kept the castle at. He was difficult, but good. He left Keith feeling good, even when they fought, because there was an element to Lance that was unique. He was helpful, even when he wasn’t. 

Oh, who was he kidding? Not himself, that was for sure. Keith had a crush on Lance, and it was killing him slowly. 

“Thanks,” Lance responded, obviously oblivious to Keith’s internal monologue. Lucky him. He raised the headphones and slipped them over his ears, and then immediately adjusted the volume. Unsurprising. Lance definitely seemed like the type to listen to blaring music. He nodded his head along in time to the beat for nearly thirty seconds, and then his eyes went wide and he ripped the headphones off again. He stared at Keith with a mixture of horror and amusement on his face, and the amusement must have won, because he began to laugh, the laughter bubbling through his lips and growing until he was doubled over, guffawing, gripping the headphones tightly. 

Keith, for his part, was floored. “What?!” he asked, completely flabbergasted. Nothing in any of the songs was  _ that _ funny, especially not on --he checked the track-- song eleven. 

It took Lance a few minutes to catch his breath long enough to speak. “Do you even know how typical emo you are?” he asked, still grinning, bringing a hand up to wipe at the tears of laughter that had formed in his eyes. 

“... _ What?”  _ he repeated, reaching out to take the headphones back, careful to keep from jostling the player on the bed. 

“That’s My Chem. You’re literally listening to the emo-est band in the history of emo bands. You’re a literal stereotype!” This seemed to set Lance off again, because he began giggling once more, covering his mouth to try and stop the flow once he caught sight of Keith’s unimpressed face. “Oh, c’mon! It’s--” he hiccupped, looked vaguely horrified for two seconds -- _ adorable _ , Keith’s traitorous brain supplied-- “It’s funny, man!” He hadn’t let go of the headphones, and now Keith was holding onto them too, afraid of pulling too hard to try and extricate them and breaking them instead. 

“I don’t get it,” Keith said, completely deadpan. Lance’s laughter slowly died, and a look of truly abject horror replaced it. 

“You seriously don’t... ? Oh, my god. You are a literal emo stereotype who has  _ no idea what the emo stereotype is! _ ” The last was punctuated with another hiccup, as though for good measure, but Lance seemed to ignore it, so Keith did his best to, as well. “Dios ayúdame,” he mumbled, looking skyward, and Keith didn’t need to know Spanish to know that Lance was obviously asking for some sort of Godly assistance. Which was slightly amusing, given that they were  _ in space _ and therefore the heavens were already explored and--

Thinking about this shit gave him a headache. 

“Look, it was just the CD in there when I-- when I got it, okay? So leave me alone.” Keith’s tone had turned sharp, even to his own ear, and Lance must have heard the shift, because he backed off a little. He  _ still  _ hadn’t let go of the headphones. 

“Hey, Keith, I don’t mean anything bad by it. It was just an Earth thing, y’know? They were an emo band. I’m not saying they were bad or anything. Or that it’s bad that you like it. You can like whatever you want! I’m just saying that… It’s kinda funny, but not like… bad funny. Just kinda ha-ha funny.” 

Lance sounded sincere, more sincere than he usually sounded when they talked about anything. Most of the time, Lance only sounded like that when he was talking to Shiro, and maybe Hunk, since the two of them were so close. It was strange to be the target of such a serious Lance, but Keith found that he actually didn’t mind it. It was… nice. To have more than just sarcasm directed at him. 

“...I didn’t know it was a stereotype,” Keith said eventually, quietly. Lance inflated a little, seemingly glad that he’d even gotten a response at all. 

“Yeah. I mean, like I said, it’s not a bad thing, but… Man, with your hair and your face, it doesn’t surprise me that you like them.” 

“My face?” Keith raised an eyebrow as Lance hiccupped again. “What about my face?”

Lance made a wide gesture. “You know… Your face! The whole ‘I’m pretending that I’m not cool or anything but I’m actually cooler than you’ll ever be’ face… thing.” He’d finally let go of the headphones, and Keith set them and the player to the side after carefully pausing the music. “Your face!” 

The eyebrow he’d raised only moved further up his forehead, and he caught sight of a faint flush --!!!-- against Lance’s cheeks. Maybe the room really  _ was _ warmer than usual. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He paused a beat; Lance hiccupped again. “You think I’m cooler than you’ll ever be?” he asked, a sly smile just barely peeking out at the corners of his lips. 

He got the desired reaction almost immediately. Lance puffed himself up --although the effect was somewhat ruined by another one of those completely-not-adorable hiccups-- and crossed his arms dramatically over his chest. “No! I do not! I just think that you think that we think that… that you think… that we-- no, that I-- no, that you think you’re cooler than us!” he finally got out. He pointed a finger at Keith. “With your-- your face! And you--  _ Wait a second.”  _ Lance stopped mid-rant, and Keith felt himself smiling just a little bit more, the expression reaching his eyes. “Are you… You baited me! You’re trying to be  _ funny. _ ” And he blinked once before he burst out laughing again, hiccuping with every breath he tried to take in. “Oh, my god,” he gasped out between peals of laughter and those annoying hiccups. “I  _ fell  _ for it! Keith! My man!” he seemed to force himself to take a breath, pounding his chest in an effort to stop the hiccups as Keith watched in actual amusement. “You’re actually not terrible, when you stop being such a dick,” Lance commented, coughing once and immediately hiccuping for it. He made a face. “I’m going to die,” he added. “And I’m going to blame you.” 

“I’m not terrible, and you’re going to blame me for the fact that your diaphragm is revolting against you?” Keith asked dryly, unable to keep himself from smirking. Lance groaned and flopped back down dramatically, his head landing with a thud against Keith’s knee. Keith winced, more in sympathy than in pain.

“Ow. Quiznak,” Lance mumbled. “I did not mean to do that. Ouch.” He hiccuped again, adding insult to injury, in Keith’s personal opinion. Keith finally decided to take pity on him, fully ignoring the fact that Lance’s head was halfway in his lap.

“Relax, Lance,” Keith commanded, and Lance shifted his head a little to look up at him. 

“Huh?”

“Just relax for a minute. It’ll help with the hiccups.” 

Lance looked skeptical, but another hiccup had him cringing and nodding slowly. “What, do you have some magic cure to the hiccups, too?” he asked, sounding doubtful. 

Keith grinned. “Actually, yeah. I do. Can you make yourself burp?” 

“Keith, Hunk and I have been best friends for, like, ever.” 

Keith actually let out a huff of laughter at that. “Fair point. When you feel the hiccup coming, make yourself burp. It confuses your diaphragm and basically causes a total reboot to your system.” 

Lance didn’t seem to look like he believed him, but a few seconds later, the sound of a burp mixed with a hiccup rang through the room, and then Lance laid there, tense, until--

“I… Holy shit, did that actually work?” 

If Keith looked smug, it was because he definitely felt it. “Told you it would.” 

Lance made to sit up, then winced and dropped his head back down, this time properly into Keith’s lap. “Ouch. Nope. Not gonna move for a second. Head. Ouch.” 

Keith could just  _ feel  _ the alarm bells going off in his head. Lance was lying  _ on his bed.  _ In his  _ lap _ . Just what had he done to deserve this torture?

“Are--” Oh, god.  _ Kill me now _ . Keith’s voice cracked the second he tried to speak, and he cleared his throat, hoping it hadn’t been noticed. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m great,” came Lance’s disgruntled reply. When Keith finally steeled himself enough to look down, he found Lance’s eyes closed. “Just… need a sec. Your knee is  _ solid _ , dude.” 

“...right.” What was he supposed to do now? Tell Lance to leave? Tell him to get up?  _ Enjoy the moment _ ?!?! The last seemed highly unlikely, but as the silence descended again in the room, Keith found himself doing just that. Lance’s weight was a solid presence, a reminder better than any song that he wasn’t alone. It was… nice. 

“You’re not concussed, are you?” Keith asked a few minutes later, after he’d shifted a little to get more comfortable and ended up with a hand resting lightly on Lance’s bicep. Lance hadn’t moved, and Keith had gone into panic mode. What if he’d given himself a concussion? What if he’d died? What if--

“Nah. I’m fine. Just tired, y’know?” Lance was silent for a moment, his eyes still closed, but his features turned down into a thoughtful frown. “I miss this. People. I had a big family, y’know? My older sister --Eva, you’d like her, she was into My Chem-- she used to cuddle up with my brother and me and we’d all snuggle together and watch movies when I couldn’t sleep. It’s probably kinda stupid, but I really miss feeling close to someone like that. Hunk is really cool about it, but there’s only so much cuddling you can do with your best friend before it gets weird.” Another pause. “This is probably weird, isn’t it.” It was worded as a question, but was flat like a statement, and Keith found himself responding without thinking. 

“No. You miss your family. That’s normal.” He was pretty sure it was normal, anyways. Pidge definitely missed her brother, and he’d missed Shiro when he’d disappeared. He missed his father, even though he hardly ever allowed himself to think back to that part of his life. He didn’t remember anything about a mother. 

“Do you miss yours?” 

The question was innocent enough, but Keith found himself tensing regardless. Family was such a strange concept to him. He’d had a father as a little kid, but that had ended almost as soon as it had begun. No mother, and every foster family after had been hell on Earth. 

Lance seemed to notice he’d gotten tense, because his eyes fluttered open and he made to get up. “Sorry, I didn’t--” 

Keith pressed down with the hand on his arm, shaking his head. “No. It’s fine. I just… Family isn’t-- I never had a conventional family. The whole mom-dad-siblings thing? I never got it.” He shrugged off Lance’s start to another apology. “I never knew what it was like, so it doesn’t matter. Shiro was the first person I could ever call my family.” He didn’t know how much the other paladins knew about his relationship with Shiro, actually. He’d never mentioned anything, and he was pretty sure that Shiro had more important things to do than reminisce about the past. “He pretty literally saved my life.” A pause, and then he continued more quietly as Lance relaxed again. “I ran away from one of my foster homes when I was sixteen. I didn’t leave any sort of note or contact or anything. I just ran. I didn’t look back. I didn’t want to. I wanted to take care of myself, because no one else was going to do it. I dodged any sort of confrontation for about half a year, and then I met Shiro. He saw through my bullshit right away and offered me a place to stay, instead of turning me in like he probably would’ve if he’d been anyone else.  _ That’s _ why I wanted to find him so badly. Because he’s… Shiro’s the closest thing to a family I’ve got.” He looked down at Lance again, who was staring up at him, eyes wide. “At least, he was. Until I got here. If I had to call anyone my family, now… It’d be you guys.” 

Lance didn’t speak for a long minute after Keith had exhausted himself, and Keith was honestly afraid that he’d gone too far. He didn’t usually talk about… well, anything, and this was why. People left when you talked. 

But Lance was a part of his family, and he proved it then. He reached up slowly, one of his hands covering Keith’s own, the one that was still resting on his arm. “For what it’s worth, Keith… I’m proud to call you a part of my family.” 

Keith was struck by the genuinity of the statement. It was so simple, but it meant more than anything else Lance might have blurted out in that moment. Most of his “families” had seen him as nothing more than a tax benefit. Someone being proud to be close to him? It was practically unheard of, barring Shiro. 

Lance must have seen something of Keith’s sudden roiling emotions, because he looked concerned. “Keith…? Are you alright? You look like you’re about to pu--”

The rest of Lance’s sentence was lost as Keith suddenly found his nerve and leaned down, mashing his lips against Lance’s. It was terrible and awkward, as most first kisses tended to go. His back was in a strange position and he’d caught Lance mid-speech so their lips didn’t match up right; their noses were shoved awkwardly against one another and Keith’s eyes fell shut immediately, so he had no idea how Lance was reacting. It was… not his best moment. Still, though, electricity sparked through every inch of him at the contact, and when he pulled back, his face was bright red. 

About as red as Lance’s, actually. And… oh, god, Lance looked… Really good. His face was flushed, his eyes were bright, and his lips looked pinker than they usually did. All in all, a  _ very _ good look. 

“That was…” Lance trailed off, his eyes darting between Keith’s eyes and the lips that had been on his own only moments ago. If it were possible to flush even more deeply, Keith would have done it. 

“Look, if it was horrible, you can tell me so, and you can insult me, and then you can go back to your room and we can pretend this whole conversation didn’t happen,” Keith said, hating the fact that his voice was sharp again, hating the hurt and anger that flared up at the thought of Lance  _ actually  _ hating him because of a stupidly ridiculous lapse in judgement. 

Lance didn’t look disgusted, though. In fact, he slowly grinned, looking just about as excited as he had when he’d first caught sight of the CD player. “Are you kidding? With a little more practice, I think you’d be  _ great _ at kissing.” Keith stared at him, surprised that he’d taken to it so quickly, but slowly adopted a smile of his own, tentative as it was. 

“Oh, so  _ I’m _ the one who needs practice?” he asked, and Lance nodded, reaching up in a faux-stretch and letting his hands fall to rest on the back of Keith’s neck. (Keith would pretend that he didn’t get goosebumps from the mere touch.) “Fine, then. Better show me how it’s done,  _ cargo pilot _ .” 

“Oh, it is so  _ on _ ,” Lance responded, and tugged him down for a better kiss, one that would multiply faster than either of them would be able to count. 

Somewhere between the fifth and sixteenth kisses --hey, Keith  _ really _ couldn’t count when Lance was kissing him senseless-- Lance pulled away and sat up properly, chuckling at the noise of protest that slipped out of Keith’s mouth. 

“I just need to--” he began, reaching over and hitting the play button on the CD player and cranking the volume up all the way, so that the quiet, tinny sound could be heard even without putting the headphones on. He pressed skip once, listened to the song for a moment, and then grinned with satisfaction. “There.  _ Now _ we’re a full-on c liché,” he said. 

It only seemed fitting that Keith kiss him again, if only to wipe that self-satisfied smirk off of his face. 

**Author's Note:**

> So... those were some words!
> 
> The album (of course) is The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. (Keep in mind that I am in no way a My Chem expert; I just really love the idea of Keith listening to their music.) The songs mentioned are:   
> The End of Track 10: Sleep-when Lance starts listening to the music  
> The Beginning of Track 11: Teenagers-when Lance recognises the music  
> Track 12: Disenchanted-the song they make out to
> 
> Dios ayúdame-God help me
> 
> Kudos and comments are my bread and butter! Until next time, my dudes <3


End file.
